The weird tale of Hannah Cornett has taken a turn for the weirder. After a brief Twitter meltdown last Thursday, in which she posed as James Alesi, the New York real estate broker who'd accused her of running up $20K in charges on his credit card at a Las Vegas hotel, she fell silent. Then, on Sunday night, she posted the above photos of herself working the red carpet at the Emmys to her Facebook page. And yesterday, we received a lengthy email from someone signing her name as "Amber," responding to the grifting allegations.
Here's the unedited email Amber sent to us:
A.J.
I am contacting regarding your story about Hannah Cornett. I want to fill you in on some vital information as Miss Cornett is going through the recent death of her father and she has been having a difficult time getting in touch with anyone during this difficult time. We would appreciate if upon hearing the truths of this story that you might realize your mistakes in issuing such a brutal untrue story of Hannah and thus retract it. Hannah was invited to Vegas by a Mr. James Alesi who was friends with her girlfriend, Carlie. Hannah did not know Mr. Alesi, nor had she met him previously. She agreed to go on the Vegas friends weekend trip because it was a supposedly harmless, friends, interaction and she felt that her friend Carlie could be trusted since it was her friend. They went on the trip and Hannah did indeed put down her credit card. To which she expected to take on any and all incidentals of the trip because Hannah never takes from others and is an upright individual. They checked in, but Hannah was ill and didn't want to spend too much time with anyone due to being ill, so she spend most of the time in the room. Her girlfriend however, invited her boyfriend and they enjoyed a couple days at the hotel since Hannah was ill. During that time period Mr. Alesi changed out Hannah's card at the request of Carlie. Hannah neither consumed drinks, nor did purchases, nor contacted Mr. Alesi beyond that of a few texts because she thought Carlie was interacting with him since it was her friend. When they did check out Hannah simply left her credit card down and since she wasn't feeling well didn't review the bill and simply left, not knowing any purchases had been charged to the room. Hannah came home and continued on with her life as normal. She is a hard working individual who is private and neither tries for fame or fortune. She has dedicated the last several years to the foster youth of Hawaii, spending most of what she did have to take care of the kids, feeding clothing, flying them to LA when they needed her, and over all provided a loving and giving mentor. She was recognize by the state of Hawaii for all her hard work in the community and humble service to the community. And upon losing her best friend, her father, she has been devastated to continue on with his legacy to serve, love, and assist those in need. Hannah would never do what has been accused. And I find it regrettable that people can be so insensitive when they do not know anything about someone and write such harsh things. Hannah never claims to be anyone or anything. She has been an athlete who has traveled the world competing, it's sad that you should question these things and she should be congratulated for traveling the world by herself, funding her competitions, and doing things that would make any father proud. She is amazing and I have to question people that could even begin to say she isn't one. Needless to say Hannah has been working hard in LA not only for her future, but also to take care of her mother who had to witness her fathers murder. How cruel of you to add to the pain this family is already suffering. Hannah has not been contacted by Mr. Alesi, and if she had, she would of course offered anything to help with the bill, that she has obviously now been made aware. A bill that had been run up by her girlfriend, of whom Hannah has desperately tried to get in touch with, but has completely disappeared. Carlie along with her boyfriend ran up the bill in Vegas, to which Hannah had no idea and would have of course taken care of if she had known. She is still willing to offer her financial support to assist Mr. Alesi even after all he has done to try to ruin her good name and reputation. I would ask you if you have an ounce of compassion in your body or believe in Karma at the least that you would retract this story and apologize for the things you have written and remove any items that have been written about Hannah. She will be having her lawyers get in touch with Mr. Alesi to see what ways she can assist him in payments, even though she had no responsibility for what was charged to the room by James's friend, Carlie. Hannah is a kind, sweet person and I would expect nothing less of her. Lastly, to clear up any other rumors. Hannah had a twitter account to which she never used and was run by friends and her publicists because she was not into the fame thing like I said, and she hated updated her life and sharing anything for the world to read. Since this happened she has tried to access the account, but has been unsuccessful in doing so. As for the dating rumors that have been circulating, Hannah is not dating Adrian Grenier. A posting was up on a blog that she was and she was quiet embarrassed to read this as she has said nothing about dating, babies, or marriage. She had a friendship with Adrian that she had kept quiet for years, and would never say such things as they pertain to her personal life and she spent so much time trying to keep it quiet. Her agent and manager are working diligently with her to assist her with her acting career, only for Hannah to make money to put back into the charity and not for face time or accolades. Michael Neaman her publicist is still alive and diligently working for her as well, contrary to things that have been posted. To sum things up, it is really sad that you should write such things about a person that stays out of the spotlight, specifically for these reasons, would never hurt, harm, use someone's money, lie, or anything that was accused, and Hannah is a remarkable person that you should shed light on for her grace and dignity. I ask that you retract this article in light of the truths that have come to light. Hannah has gotten the FBI involved to protect her at this time because you failed to think when you wrote these untruths, they would put her in harms way by individuals that aren't in their right mind. For her safety as well, I ask for you removed of this article from your blog. Thank you for your time. best, Amber
Just a hunch, but Hannah's friend sounds a lot like Hannah. She certainly suffers from the same trouble with details. According to this 2008 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article about Cornett, her father was killed in a car accident in California, not "murdered." And that happened—or the reporter was told it happened—nearly three years ago.
(The Star-Bulletin also recounted that Cornett had suffered a head injury in a racing crash in South Africa, which "left her with memory problems that rendered her unable to train, compete or recite lines for auditions. Her memory has since returned to normal, however.")
As for the "Carlie" mentioned in the email, James Alesi says it refers to Carlie Cutler, Cornett's friend, whom he met for the first time in Vegas. There were no signs, he said, that Carlie ever had access to his credit card.
Another fact from that 2008 article:
She moved to Hawaii from Ohio at age 17. After graduating from high school, she received a soccer scholarship to Baldwin-Wallace College.
Baldwin-Wallace College is a Division III school and does not offer scholarships. Kevin Ruple, director of sports information at BWC, told us that Hannah was a 2002 graduate but never played for the soccer team.
We wrote Amber back to ask about her actual identity and to inquire why someone as shy as Cornett was on the red carpet at the Emmys. We have yet to receive a response.
To be continued...